“We’ve been fortunate here that our best players haven’t left,” he said. “A lot of coaches hate it because their players are getting poached. And I feel the same way. I know my players Des Watson, Jayden Dawson and Miles Rubin have talked to me about people reaching out to their high school coaches and AAU coaches and even directly to them.”

The Ramblers’ turnaround this season has many speculating about how much longer Valentine will remain in Rogers Park and whether he would succeed Izzo, 69, at Michigan State.

“In college basketball, the reality of what happens is there’s only two scenarios and I’ve had both of these this year,” Valentine said. “You’re either about to get fired or you’re about to go somewhere else. Even if you’re the best … like Dan Hurley right now at UConn. All the talk with him is he’s going to the NBA. It doesn’t stop unless you’re like 65 and you’ve been at a job for 20 years.

“Earlier this year when we were losing, everybody thought that I was toast. But now I’m (supposedly) going to get this job and you can’t pay attention to that. It’s flattering, but I’ve proven I’m never going to chase money. When I was an assistant I had multiple Power Five offers but I opted to stay here because I like my life, the city and what we’ve built and are continuing to build.”

“Our mindset is we’re chasing championships and that we’ve got to handle our business. It’s exciting to be in a hunt for a championship and living with that emotion, urgency and importance of having an opportunity to do that. Not taking your foot off the gas pedal there — and then also not taking your foot off the gas pedal as far as the growth that can happen individually from our players, me as a coach and then as a team.”